Magic Boy Kitchener is a Chinese animated series, made of 150 consecutive episodes, currently broadcast on CCTV. The series takes place in the late Qing Dynasty, during the era of the Empress Dowager Cixi. After a convoy accident in which the imperial kitchener perishes, Cixi orders the search for a new kitchener from the region. She sends her eunuchs to a nearby town, where they find a small tavern with a skilled elderly chef - the grandfather of the series protagonist, Fugui, a young aspiring chef himself. His grandfather is taken away by the eunuchs, leaving only one option for Fugui - becoming the imperial kitchener, thereby saving the life of his grandfather. Fugui must train his cooking skills in order to beat all the other cooks trying to become the Dowager's new cook. Fugui eventually finds a friend for life, Feidie, while searching for his grandfather. Feidie helps Fugui in order to get closer to the Dowager, who she wants to assassinate due to her belief that she killed her father. Fugui also befriends a lot of other people with his friendly personality, such as the Guangxu Emperor, whom he nicknames "Sprout", eunuch Xiao Lizi—A greedy man at first, but then changes across the episodes—despite him leading the capture of his grandfather at the town tavern, and dispatching Fugui rather harshly during the capture. Over the course of the show, Feidie discovers that the Dowager is actually a relative to hers. Her joy is short-lived, as the Dowager wants her to get married, and Fugui is power less as a villain—who has the initial "K." who had hired Xiao Lizi before realizes his error and forces his goddaughter to distract Fugui—manages to stage an act, landing the emperor into a Solitary Tower; and Fiedie is forced to escape! Fugui sees no point in becoming the imperial chef anymore, because very few days after his grandfather was freed, his grandfather died, and so he wandered off, leading the villain with the initial "K." laughing maliciously and the show ending.
Miscellaneous
Although the show is Chinese, they use simple English at times, such as "Yes", "Ok" or "No". The character Xiao Lizi is a much younger version of Li Lianying, who was a real-life servant of the Empress Dowager Cixi until her death in 1908; Li Lianying died three years later in 1911, at the age of 62. The show is supposed to be in the olden days, but sometimes they have parodies of modern inventions or they sing modern songs at time.
